CORONARY REOPERATION VIA SMALL LAPAROTOMY USING RIGHT GASTROEPIPLOIC ARTERY WITHOUT CPB

The elective use of the right gastroepiploic artery as an in situ graf t has been well established in coronary surgery. We propose a surgical technique for patients undergoing coronary reoperations with a patent mammary graft to the left anterior descending artery. The gastroepipl oic artery is used through a small laparotomy when only the right coro nary artery or the posterior descending artery needs revascularization . The described technique allows avoidance of both resternotomy and ca rdiopulmonary bypass.